Pilgrims & Machomen Clash Over Nana’s Water

There was confusion yesterday at the Hajj Camp when machomen tried abortively to stop water Nana Akufo Addo had sent, from reaching some pilgrims stranded at the place.

Desperate pilgrims who would not allow the macho men to go ahead with their plans of denying them access to the water, made for the fluid, creating a scene as the heavily-built men sought to prevent them from doing so.

When Daily Guide got in touch with Alhaji Yusif Ahmed, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Assistant Secretary for the Greater Accra Region who took the water to the pilgrims, he said, “I had called Haruna Halidu, a member of the Hajj Committee and a cousin of mine, about our plans to send some water to the place and he said since he would not be around I should speak to any of the Hajj officials.”

Permission to deliver the water was not granted by the officials he met at the place initially. However, he stated, a lady, Hajia Zainab, Deputy National Women’s Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), showed up and hearing their story, she said she was going to seek clearance before receiving the water. “Eventually she said I should speak to someone on the phone who happened to be Alhaji Sorogho who said he was in charge of operations.

He said their permission should have been sought before bringing the water to the place, to which I disagreed because when we were in government, they could come and go at the Hajj village without seeking any permission,” he added.

He however asked that the Women’s Organiser receive the water but just as the consignment was being offloaded, some men who claimed to be national security personnel insisted on having the consignment taken to a place they chose but Yusif refused. “Just then, some machomen descended on us and started putting the water back onto the truck but at this stage, the pilgrims started storming the place and serving themselves and thus aborting the plot to deny Nana credit for the gesture,” he said.

Earlier, word had gone round that Vice President John Mahama was going to send some food packs to the stranded pilgrims. It is thought that NDC elements who put up the show did so to prevent the Vice President’s expected food packs from being overshadowed by Nana’s water.

The last batch of pilgrims, at the time of filing this report yesterday, was still stranded at the Hajj Camp, El Wak, not certain about when their flight would take off even as frantic efforts were being made to ensure they were airlifted.

What started as a smooth operation is now fraught with the challenge of unissued visas and the availability of an aircraft big enough to clear the backlog of pilgrims.

Two thousand three hundred and eighty Ghanaian pilgrims are already in Saudi Arabia out of the three thousand one hundred paid-up pilgrims. Ghana requested 2500 visas, permits which have already been given.

With some 600 outstanding pilgrims awaiting visas now, the Saudi embassy is awaiting clearance from their home country to issue fresh visas, having exhausted the number allocated the country for this year’s mission.

An anonymous Moslem told Daily Guide, “It is all about visa and not some injunction on the kitty of the Hajj Committee as being peddled in some quarters. It is negligence on the part of the organizers.”

An Islamic cleric who spoke off record asked that Hajj management be left in the hands of those versed in travel and logistics matters. “Let them completely depoliticize it,” he added. Hajj operations have been fraught with politics over the years and some of the challenges being faced this year are inherited ones spanning a long period. Of the three free tickets offered Muslim journalists, only one was able to fly, leaving the other two who are stranded.

The Jeddah Airport would be closed on 11th November 2010.